Jungfrau 2022

[Schif]

26 minutes ago, toast21602 said:

The amount of train pictures included in this report is phenomenal. 

Agreed. It's taking it to a next level

[eaf]

2 hours ago, toast21602 said:

The amount of train pictures included in this report is phenomenal. 

I do find local trains fascinating.

We travelled from Zurich to Bern in under an hour on a non-stop train. It just glided over the tracks.

Second train from Bern to Interlaken followed a lake shore, and the scenery was amazing.

Third one was actually two trains in one. A few stations up from Interlaken the first half diverted to Lauterbrunnen and the second one continued to Grindelwald. At some point it switched to cog drive.

Finally, the local trains that go toward Kleine Scheidegg use only cog drive, and the incline is considerable.

IC trains between Zurich, Bern and Interlaken look alike. They have a special bike/kids car with tons of space for bikes and skis downstairs and a freaking kids playground upstairs.

On some trains when doors open there’s a little step that automatically  flips and covers the gap between the car and the platform so that you can easily roll a bike or a suitcase in and out.

IDK if anyone here ever took NJT or LIRR trains. Sadly, they’re a dinosaur clunky dirty junk in comparison. Actually there is no comparison.

So yeah, Swiss trains are a big attraction on this trip. Busses are only average.

[skiincy]

Great writing and amazing photos to document!

seems PASR magazine worthy

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

4 hours ago, skiincy said:

Great writing and amazing photos to document!

seems PASR magazine worthy

@RidgeRacer PASR magazine talk. 

[eaf]

There used to be a view…

[eaf]

Today was amazing.

It snowed last night, the forecast was iffy, so I checked webcams first thing in the morning and decided to go to, we’ll, First again.

Second in line with only a girl with skis and a dog waiting ahead of us. It still snows a little, and the viz isn’t great, I can hardly see surrounding mountains, but it is what it is, and the gates open with two minute delay again…

We’re riding up, getting past first station, and viz gets worse. Reaching second station, and it’s total milk. Fog is even inside the station. I pull the phone to check back on the cams, and yep it got worse on top as well, but at least I can see something on screen!

At the final station it does look better, the problem is that the wind is howling, snow is blowing across, gaiter freezes solid, and we still can’t see anything for a safe run.

Next chair lift to the very top is not running, so we’re taking the ridge walk again. Nothing to see out there, for there are clouds everywhere. By the time we’re back on snow I start feeling like those folks scaling up Eiger in North Face. But at least I have a way down.

Chairs up aren’t spinning yet, and the attendant says that it’s gonna take at least another 30 mins, so we decide to ski down to the previous station.

No viz, but the snow is awesome! It seems like there are 6” of fresh snow lying on groomed surface, so we’re just floating down while carefully watching the markers so that we don’t fall off the trail. The trail is also somehow shielded from the wind, so we don’t feel like frozen popsicles anymore.

Got to the station, then up, then down again, it just felt sooo good… Some people started to form a line at the bottom of that delayed chair lift, we didn’t want to waste time waiting, so continued skiing and fantasizing about how great it must be up there…

Finally the lift opened up, we hopped on it, reached the top, let the skis on the surface and immediately cursed. It was all frozen cord with snow just blowing across.

In complete disbelief, half skiing, half scraping we proceeded down thinking “how can it be so shitty here when it’s so good only a little bit lower, snow has to change at some point”, but alas, before the thought even started to process, I suddenly hit an unseen pile of blown snow and flew head first. Soooooft!!!

Later throughout the day we’ve found uniformly deep trails, icy spots and even some very decent groomers with at most an inch of new snow. The weather cleared up and went bad again. Viz fluctuated from “I can see everything around” to “I think there was a drop after this turn, where is it, a shit, here it goes!”

It was a day of wildest skiing ever. From “I probably should just go back right away” to “Damn, is it time to get tested already??”

And hardly any people, the locals are so spoiled!

[Kyle]

Damn. Good stuff eaf, to say that im jealous would be a massive understatement 

[eaf]

It snows again, but we’ve got to go…

At least we aren’t driving 👍

[eaf]

This is going to be a boring summary post.

I was in Switzerland once in summer, and it's as beautiful in winter as I remember seeing it in July. Well, the lakes are perhaps less blue, there are no flowers, sheep or cows on the slopes, but the mountain scenery around Grindelwald is hard to beat. I'll definitely want to come back there again some time.

Travel-wise, I loved the train access. For the three of us it ended up cheaper to go by train than to rent a car, and the convenience is hard to beat. On the night of departure it snowed hard, but all we had to worry about was how to drag our stuff over fresh snow 100m down to the train station. After that it's a comfy ride down to Interlaken where, chances are, there will be just rain.

There are way too many ways to buy train tickets for my liking. Putting all discount cards aside (which I think are not worth getting for a single trip), one is still left with the choice of buying a Point to Point ticket, a Saver Day Pass or a Supersaver Ticket. The first one works on any train on a given day between the two destination, the Saver Day Pass works on a given day on just about any train except for some mountain trains, and Supersaver Ticket is a time- and route-specific discounted fare that works only on the trains departing at the specified time. The relative price of all tickets varies all the time, I didn't quite grasp the logic except that Saver Day Passes become gradually more expensive the closer you get to your travel dates. We ended up buying Saver Day Pass, to have the freedom of taking any route when we arrive and leave.

sbb.ch (Web site and an App) is where we bought tickets, planned routes or checked live updates due to service disruptions or just because we ended up in the wrong place and now needed to take a different train. sbb.ch covers both trains and buses, lists departure time, platforms for trains, stops for buses, and bugs you on your way if there is a change coming soon.

Between ZRH and Grindelwald there are at least two changes (one in Bern, one in Interlaken), but sometimes the app suggests jumping a train in Zurich or Spietz, saving a few minutes. We preferred a more relaxed, slower ride to hauling skis and bags one/two extra times. Typical connection time is 7-10 mins and for us it always involved going from platform to platform through a tunnel or via an overpass. Still, even overloaded with skis and luggage, this was manageable.

Tickets were always checked in the trains between Zurich, Bern and Interlaken and were never checked between Interlaken and Grindelwald. The way how they do it is by scanning QR code in sbb.ch app, print-at-home paper ticket and then matching it you our ID, a US DL works just fine.

As far as lodging is concerned, we were picking between a whole house near train station in Wilderswil (second station from Interlaken toward Grindelwald, about 20 mins by train to the nearest lift) and a spacious studio on the main street in Grindelwald, both costing about the same. Both options would actually provide reasonably convenient access, and trains in Jungrfau regions are free with a valid skipass, but Grindelwald is of course a nicer place to stay at, it has the atmosphere of a ski town, whereas Wilderswil is just a quiet residential area with a train station on the way up the mountains. Two thumbs up for staying in Grindelwald, one thumb up for Wilderswil.

There are three access points for the slopes in Grindelwald:

1. First - a separate ski area accessible by a gondola lift from the main street. You get there by walking or taking one of 4 buses (free, thanks to hotels and airbnb charging you 4.70 CHF tourist tax pp, pd).
2. Terminal - a modern hub with 15-min lifts reaching Kleine Scheidegg and Mahnlichen. It's accessible by two buses and is a one train station, 3 min away from Grindelwald on the way down toward Interlaken.
3. Kleine Scheidegg - half way between Grindelwald and Wengen, accessible by a separate train departing from Grindelwald station via Grund and going further up the mountain. Travel time 30mins, leaving every 30 mins. It's a nice trip, especially in summer. And we were the only passengers in our car when we took it to Kleine in early morning.

Unfortunately we never got to the farthest Schilthorn/Murren area accessible from Lauterbrunnen, so I can't say much about it.

Of those three that I've seen, I liked First the most. It's disconnected, requires an additional bus travel if you don't stay in Grindelwald and are arriving by train, hence less people, but enough trails of all kinds, and they were in far better condition than those at Kleine or Mahnlichen.

Trails around Kleine are too narrow, crowded and scraped, especially in the afternoon. Same is true for the loooong trail that goes back along the train tracks to Grindelwald. Interestingly, the trail following the tracks in the opposite direction, i.e. from Kleine to Wengen is much quieter and hence pleasant. It actually makes a great loop, taking train/gondola from Grindelwald to Kleine, then taking long trail to Wengen (nice car-free town!), then lift up to Mahnlichen and skiing down to Grindelwald.

Mahnlichen can be busy too, but it has more trails, they're wider, and people disperse nicely across the slopes. What works against Mahnlichen is that this the main place that Wengen people go to, and it's just a single gondola ride away.

Snow was great there. Around our visit snow was in the forecast every day, but in reality it snowed about half the time. Up the mountain the coverage was 100%, and since most of the snow was fresh, it was easy to try going off-piste. IDK if it's a norm or we just got lucky, but I do know that e.g. in Dolomites, which are touted for having the most number of sunny days, and hence are a more reliable destination for a quick skiing trip, we once arrived to brown slopes with only man-made trails.

As far as COVID is concerned, unless you have a EU vaccination certificate, Switzerland requires visitors to purchase a Swiss cert. It can be done by scanning US CDC card, uploading image to some ch website and paying 30 CHF. Once you do, it gets loaded in a Swiss Covid Cert App or can be downloaded/printed as a PDF. This certificate was scanned diligently in every restaurant on the slopes before allowing us in.

Besides certificates one must also have a 24-hour antigen test or 72-hour PCR. It was an absolute nightmare getting tested around holidays in NJ, but on the way back the antigen test was done in the Terminal for 40 CHF pp, took about an hour to wait in line and get the results.

Airlines in JFK asked for both test and vaccination, passport control in ZRH checked vaccination as well.

 

[toast21602]

This is just fantastic! Thanks Eaf! Love the photos.

[Barb]

Good write up!  You got a deal on the Covid tests. We paid 75CHF each for ours last fall. I loved the trains there too, so convenient. 

[toast21602]

4 minutes ago, Barb said:

Good write up!  You got a deal on the Covid tests. We paid 75CHF each for ours last fall. I loved the trains there too, so convenient. 

Wow. I think I paid $9 USD for a test in CZE in November. 

[Barb]

Guess everything really is more expensive in Zermatt 😂

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

25 minutes ago, Barb said:

Guess everything really is more expensive in Zermatt 😂

Barb there’s a mountain town in Switzerland for the ultra rich where it’s like $86 for a cheeseburger. I still think it’s funny that you have 3+ houses and won’t spend $5 on a bottle of water. 

[Barb]

Gotta draw the line somewhere 🤷🏻‍♀️